Method, system, and computer program for automated cause marketing using mobile devices

ABSTRACT

The present invention teaches a system, method and computer program for enabling local or regional merchants to participate in an automated cause marketing (ACM) program using mobile devices. The ACM program that may provide benefits to several parties involved in fundraising for one or more supported organizations, including one or more supported organizations, advertising providers, merchants, and individuals. Merchants are able to access enhanced analytics regarding their transactions with members and non-members of the ACM program and can use these enhanced analytics to realize an increased number of or revenue from transactions with members. The present invention also teaches a system and method for enabling advertising providers to acquire and analyze data associated with consumers-merchant transactions. The present invention provides the above features optimally using mobile devices. Furthermore, the present invention, may enable a member to disseminate its charitable preferences and contribution notifications to members of its electronic social networks.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/283,632 which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/508,084, which is the National Stage Entry of InternationalApplication No. PCT/CA2009/001605, filed Nov. 6, 2009, the entireties ofall are hereby incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to automated cause marketing. The presentinvention more specifically relates to a system, method and computerprogram for attracting local or regional businesses to an automatedcause marketing environment by providing enhanced analytics relating tothese business' transactions and enabling businesses to leverage theseanalytics to increase the number of or revenue from transactions.

BACKGROUND

Popular fundraising methods have changed significantly in recent years.For example, supported organizations traditionally raised money fromtaxes, public donations, corporate donations, and fundraising drives.More recently, supported organizations have utilized lotteries toattract funds. However, online systems are now emerging to enablesubstantial flow-through of donation to supported organizations inconnection with loyalty systems. These loyalty systems enable retailbusinesses to realize increased revenues and repeat business fromconsumers.

In another example, public and private interest groups often raisedmoney by requesting donations and other means of financial support frompeople and companies whose views aligned with the group.

Some of the more advanced loyalty systems may be termed automated causemarketing (“ACM”). An ACM program typically automates dissemination ofbenefits to several parties involved in fundraising, including one ormore supported organizations (for example, charities), merchants, andindividuals (also referred to as members, consumers, or customers).Optimally, flow-through to the supported organizations is maximized inthe ACM model. One exemplary model of an ACM program is disclosed inU.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/118,923 to EDATANETWORKS™ for“Method, System, and Computer Program for Providing a Loyalty Engine forAutomated Cause Management”.

The ACM program, in its various typical implementations, may beadministered by one or more of the supported organizations or an ACMadministrator, who could also be the same entity as one or more of themerchants, a credit card company, another loyalty offeror, an onlinestore, an offline store offering a credit facility, etc.

Typically, consumers are attracted to and join an ACM program based onthe particular supported organizations involved. It is common for aparticular consumer to favor an ACM program that benefits supportedorganizations with which the consumer has an emotional bond. Theconsumer will then often prefer to transact with merchants registeredwith the ACM program rather than those not registered with the ACMprogram so as to benefit these supported organizations.

However, what has not been contemplated is a system that considers theemotional bond a consumer might have with particular merchants. It iswell known that many consumers favor particular merchants, such as localor regional businesses that are “institutions” in their communities.These local and regional businesses are often referred to as “mom andpop stores”, illustrating the familial connection felt by theircustomers.

These local and regional businesses may not have any internet presenceor other electronic connection with the outside world. They have not hadany opportunity to be integrated into loyalty systems such as ACMprograms. Ironically, it is this same type of business that will tend tomost favor donations to supported organizations with which they alsohave an emotional bond, so their consumers have not necessarily beenfully incentivized to join ACM programs. These consumers clearly willoften be more likely to participate in an ACM program if the local orregional business is tied to the program.

However, it is very challenging to incorporate these types of merchantsand supported organizations into current ACM programs. Most ACM programsmust operate on a large scale, such as nationally, to be able togenerate the amounts of exposure and revenues to effectively benefit theparties involved, and to make ACM programs and related activitiesprovide sufficient return to supported organization, given the oftensignificant costs associated with providing the infrastructure requiredby such programs. In other words, it may not be cost effective tointegrate regional or local merchants and supported organizations intypical ACM programs. Where they are involved, it is often at a cost, orburden, to the ACM program. This is why ACM programs generally focus ona relatively small number of supported organizations and businessesaligned with these supported organizations that operate on a national orat least regional basis. Prior art ACM programs accordingly generallyfail to leverage the bulk of activity directed towards these supportedorganizations and a significant proportion of businesses that wouldsupport them, that operate at a local or regional level.

Another issue relating to current ACM programs is the lack of exposurethey have to those consumers that are not actively seeking out ways inwhich to donate to supported organizations. Many consumers are notcurrently aware of the existence of many ACM programs, or even theconcept of the ACM program in general. There has to date not been anytechnique for addressing this deficiency of ACM programs, and typicaladvertising methods are likely impractical given that supportedorganizations, particularly charities, often do not have sufficientfunds for such marketing efforts. There has, in this regard, not beenany technique developed for enhancing customer acquisition on a largescale.

Therefore, what is required is an ACM program that is able to allowlocal and regional businesses and supported organizations to be involvedso as to leverage their inclusion in the ACM program to enhance customeracquisition. What is further required is a system that leveragesexisting relationships to allow consumers to become aware of ACMprograms and the benefits they provide to supported organizations,including supported organizations.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a computer network implementable methodfor providing a loyalty program for promoting contributions to one ormore supported organizations, the method characterized by: (a) linkingone or more users to a loyalty program established by an administratorand establishing the users as members of the loyalty program; (b)linking one or more local or regional merchants to the loyalty program;(c) associating a plurality of transactions between the one or moremembers and the one or more local or regional merchants to the loyaltyprogram and enabling the recording of information for each of theplurality of transactions; (d) defining rules for making contributionsto the one or more supported organizations based on the transactions anddirecting contributions to the one or more supported organizations basedon the rules; and (e) enabling, or facilitating the enabling, by one ormore computer processors, each of the one or more local or regionalmerchants to access analytic information relating to the plurality oftransactions and to increase the number of or revenue from futuretransactions based on the analytic information.

The present invention also provides a system for providing a loyaltyprogram for promoting contributions to supported organizations, thesystem characterized by: (a) a web server; (b) a loyalty engine linkedto the web server, the loyalty engine established by an administrator;(c) one or more point of sale facilities for accepting payment, eachlinked to one or more merchants that are linked to the loyalty program;(d) a means for associating a plurality of transactions occurring at theone or more point of sale facilities with the loyalty engine; (e) adatabase enabling the recording of information for each of the pluralityof transactions, the loyalty engine defining rules for makingcontributions to the one or more supported organizations based on thetransactions and directing contributions to the one or more supportedorganizations based on the rules; and (f) an interface for enabling eachof the one or more merchants to access analytic information relating tothe plurality of transactions.

The present invention further provides a computer program comprisingcomputer instructions which when loaded on a server computer connectedto the Internet are operable to provide a web application defining aloyalty engine for promoting contributions to supported organizations,characterized in that the loyalty engine is operable to define a loyaltyprogram by performing the steps of: (a) linking one or more users to aloyalty program established by an administrator and establishing theusers as members of the loyalty program; (b) linking one or more localor regional merchants to the loyalty program; (c) associating aplurality of transactions between the one or more members and the one ormore local or regional merchants to the loyalty program and enabling therecording of information for each of the plurality of transactions; (d)defining rules for making contributions to the one or more supportedorganizations based on the transactions and directing contributions tothe one or more supported organizations based on the rules; and (e)enabling each of the one or more local or regional merchants to accessanalytic information relating to the plurality of transactions and toincrease the number of or revenue from future transactions based on theanalytic information.

In another aspect, there is provided a system for providing a loyaltyprogram, the system comprising: a loyalty engine comprising a datastorage device and a processor for configuring a loyalty program,wherein the loyalty program generates one or more member profiles andone or more merchant profiles, wherein each of the one or more memberprofiles defines demographic data, financial card data, supportedorganization data, a member identification, and mobile deviceinformation, wherein each merchant profile defines a merchantidentification and a location, wherein the loyalty engine createsrewards for members of the loyalty program using the demographic data,the supported organization data, and the locations associated with themerchants; a mobile device utility providing an interface between theloyalty engine and one or more mobile devices to enable optimaltransacting between the loyalty engine and the one or more mobiledevices, wherein the mobile device utility is configured to: interfacewith location tracking hardware of a mobile device of the one or moremobile devices to determine that the mobile device location is within apredefined distance of a location identified in a merchant profile ofthe one or more merchant profiles, wherein the mobile device isidentified by mobile device information defined in a member profile ofthe one or more member profiles, wherein a member is identified bymember identification in the member profile; transmit a reward of therewards of the loyalty program to the mobile device at approximately atime when the mobile device is within the predefined distance of thelocation identified in a merchant profile, wherein the reward relates toa merchant identified by merchant identification in the merchant profileidentifying the location, wherein the reward comprises a machinereadable code, wherein the reward triggers contributions to the one ormore supported organizations based on a transaction between the memberand the merchant; wherein the loyalty engine: receives transaction datafor a transaction between the member and the merchant, the transactionprocessing at a point of sale facility at the location, the transactiondata indicating the merchant identification, a transaction amount, adate, a time, an indication that payment for the transaction involvedthe mobile device, and an indication of the reward; determines, usingthe transaction data, that the transaction involved redemption of thereward initiated via the machine readable code; and generates signalsfor directing a contribution amount for a contribution to the one ormore supported organizations based on the reward redemption.

In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of theinvention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is notlimited in its application to the details of construction and to thearrangements of the components set forth in the following description orillustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of otherembodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways.Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminologyemployed herein are for the purpose of description and should not beregarded as limiting.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a merchant registering with the ACM program using aboarding process of the advertising provider.

FIG. 2 illustrates a merchant registering with the advertising providerusing a boarding process of the ACM program.

FIG. 3 illustrates the integration of an advertising provider's serviceswith the ACM program, wherein survey responses are used to linktransactions to advertisements viewed by members.

FIG. 4 illustrates a process for measuring utilization of search resultsby members resulting in transactions with offline merchants.

FIG. 5 illustrates an advertising provider enabling use of an ACMprogram by an offline merchant enabling transactions with ACM members.

FIG. 6 illustrates ACM program features enabled using a mobile device.

FIG. 7 illustrates the present invention whereby a member's mobiledevice is incorporated optimally into an ACM program.

FIG. 8 illustrates the present invention whereby a member facilitatesdissemination of aspects of an ACM program using an electronic socialnetwork.

FIG. 9 illustrates the architecture of a social media adapter utilityfor an ACM program in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example web page for providing a merchant withanalytic information in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 11 displays a calendar interface for configuring contributions andmanaging rewards.

FIG. 12 illustrates a member accessing merchant reviews and ACMinformation generated from feedback received from other memberscorresponding to previous transactions with the merchant.

FIG. 13 illustrates example schematics of interfaces for mobile devices.

FIG. 14 illustrates a schematic diagram of a system for automated causemarketing using mobile devices.

FIG. 15 illustrates a schematic diagram of a system for processingtransactions between members and merchants using mobile devices.

FIG. 16 illustrates a flow chart of a method for automated causemarketing using mobile devices.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Overview

The present invention provides a system, method and computer program forattracting businesses to an automated cause marketing (ACM) environment(referred to herein as an ACM program) that is provided by a loyaltyengine. These businesses are attracted to the ACM program through theavailability by the ACM program of enhanced analytics that wouldotherwise not be available to these businesses without significant cost.

The enhanced analytics provided to the business includes information toincrease customer acquisition and retention and maximize revenue. Thisis accomplished by reporting to the business information relating to itscustomer's preferences, their responses to previous promotions (which isindicative of their likelihood of future transactions using those orsimilar promotions), and means for attracting new and existing customersto transact with the business. The interface of the present inventionenables the business to leverage the analytics to provide to customersthese means for attracting them. Consequently, a business can experiencean increased number of or revenue from transactions using the ACMprogram, which in turn benefits the other parties to the ACM program.

The ACM program of the present invention is particular advantageous forinclusion of local or regional businesses. These businesses typically donot have any online presence (they may be strictly “brick and mortarstores”), however the present invention enables them to still benefitfrom real-time analytic information relating to their customers andtransactions. It should be understood that the term “local and regionalbusinesses” is not to be construed as limiting in any sense. Forexample, a national business would benefit from the analytics hereinpresented however what is commonly known as a “local” or “regional”business or an independent business or franchisee would particularlybenefit in a way that it could not in prior art ACM programs.

In return for attracting local and regional businesses, the ACM programincreases in scope and a supported organization of the ACM program isable to realize further revenue streams owing to the inclusion of thelocal and regional businesses.

Businesses in the ACM program are referred to as “merchants” whilecustomers are referred to as “members”. Optimally, the system of thepresent invention includes a web server and a point of sale facility foreach merchant in communication with the web server. The ACM program is aweb-based program providing a loyalty engine, linked to the web server,providing an ACM program interface to enable features including rewardsnotification and dissemination, consumer surveying, events, offers andanalytics. Transactions made between members and merchants using thepoint of sale facilities and form of payment can be recorded orotherwise linked to a database for further referral by members,merchants, the administrator or an intermediary. Members may completesurveys linked to merchants and corresponding transactions. Reviewsbased on the surveys can be generated for merchants and when othermembers are searching for a merchant these members can be presented withthe completed reviews.

The present invention also provides a system and method for increasingcustomer acquisition in an ACM program. These customers may be added tothe ACM program individually using novel technologies and techniques asdescribed more fully below, or these customers may be added to the ACMprogram in sets or batches by leveraging user bases of other systems.

The batch customer acquisition process of the present invention includesa boarding process for adding customers to the ACM program. The boardingprocess may be provided by the ACM program and can be used by anintermediary to associate the intermediary with the ACM program, or maybe provided by the intermediary and can be used by an ACM administratorto associate the ACM program with the intermediary. The intermediarytypically has a user base and the boarding process automaticallyassociates this user base with the ACM program as new consumers, or“members” of the ACM program. Similarly, the existing members of the ACMprogram can be linked as new users of the intermediary's system.

The individual customer acquisition model of the present inventionincludes a system and method for enabling an intermediary, for examplean advertising provider, to be associated with a particular ACM programwherein the advertising provider may realize revenues as a result ofconnecting consumers with merchants, the merchants may be provided withenhanced analytics associated with consumers that choose to transactwith them, and supported organizations, for example supportedorganizations or public or private interest groups, may realize furtherrevenue streams in accordance with the rules of the ACM program.

The present invention enables an intermediary such as an advertisingprovider to also be advantageously associated with the ACM program whilealso increasing contribution opportunities to the supportedorganizations and loyalty opportunities to the merchant. The merchantsand advertising provider may acquire and analyze data associated withconsumer-merchant transactions. The present invention is equallybeneficial for enabling an online advertising provider to benefit fromoffline transactions as it is from online transactions.

The present invention also provides the above advantages optimally usinga mobile device or other wireless means. The mobile device may enableoptimal dissemination of offers, rewards, contests, surveys, mapping, orother location or proximity based services. Mobile access to an ACMprogram interface may also be provided. The mobile device may be acomputing device with at least one processor, at least one memory, and anetwork interface for wireless communication. The network interface maysupport different types of wireless network connections such assatellite, cellular, radio frequency, infrared, wi-fi, Bluetooth, NFC,and other wireless networking technologies. The network interface mayalso support wired communication. The mobile device may also have adisplay screen to display interfaces such as a graphical user interface(GUI). An example mobile device is a wearable device such as an articleof clothing or an accessory that incorporates computer hardware.

Furthermore, the present invention enables a member to disseminate itssupport preferences, for example a list of supported organizations, tomembers of its electronic social networks. The ACM program may beenabled to disseminate associated information such as rewards, offers,events, and surveys in accordance with the rules of the ACM program.

Customer Acquisition

In one particular implementation, the ACM program is hosted by an ACMadministrator, which may be a supported organization or a third party.It should be understood that reference in this specification to asupported organization could equally apply to a plurality of supportedorganizations.

Individuals may register with the ACM program to become members.Registration could be provided by a plurality of registration means. Theindividual may already be associated with a pre-registered financialprogram, which could be any financial program in which one or morepersonal (identification) or demographic information is associated withthe individual. A registration interface of the present ACM program,such as a web page, may be provided to the individual, in which theinterface may include a means by which to import all personal ordemographic information and preferences from the pre-registeredfinancial program to the present ACM program. Furthermore, the one ormore forms of payment linked to the pre-registered financial programcould also be linked with the present ACM program to enable the ACMprogram to track transactions made with those forms of payment.Alternatively, the individual may register with the ACM program byproviding, through an interface such as a web page, the individual'spersonal or demographic information, and the ACM program may generate afinancial card number for that individual. A financial card may also besent to the individual. Example financial cards include debit cards,credit cards, gift cards, or other card relating to a financial account.It should be understood that the “financial card” need not be a physicalcard, but could be any form of payment device, including for example anRFID chip, a mobile phone, electronic token, electronic certificate,etc. depending on, for example, supporting infrastructure of merchants.For example, a financial card may be an electronic representation of afinancial instrument non-transitorily stored on memory of a mobiledevice so that the mobile device may be used by a member for payment fortransactions with merchants. The mobile device may receive data relatedto the financial card and transmit data related to the financial card toimplement operations for transaction processing. For example, a merchantmay have an electronic point of sale facility that electronicallyinteracts with mobile device with financial card data stored thereon toprocess the payment.

A mobile device may have multiple different financial cards storedthereon to provide a virtual or electronic “wallet”. A mobile interfacemay provide card management features to enable a user to navigateavailable financial cards (represented as icons, graphicalrepresentations of cards, and so on), select a financial card forpayment for a given transaction, and authorize the transaction. Themobile interface may also provide a mechanism to register, validate andverify financial cards. The mobile device may implement securitytechniques to secure data related to the financial card stored thereonto prevent unauthorized access and use thereof, including for example,encryption, biometrics, passwords, and so on. Accordingly, a hardwarecomponent of a mobile device may receive, store and transmit financialdata so that the mobile device acts as a financial card. An examplemobile device is a wearable device that may receive, store, and transmitthe financial data and act as a financial card.

The ACM program may also be enabled to receive from the member a profilewhich may include a set of rich data including additional personalinformation, such as a list of the social networks the member is linkedto, authentication information for those social networks (e.g. membernames and passwords), preferred supported organizations and merchants(as described more fully below), or other information relevant toenabling optimal usage of the ACM program.

In accordance with this rich data, the present invention enables the ACMprogram to select rewards defined by merchants in accordance with therules of the ACM program and to communicate these rewards to the membersbased on administrative criteria (such as demographic targeting ofrewards). It should be noted that the architecture of the ACM programmay enable shielding of the personal information of the member fromindividual merchants, as the ACM administrator may be in control of thepersonal information and may act as an intermediary between merchantsand members for purposes of dissemination of rewards, contests, surveys,offers, or other communications. This measure is more fully describedbelow.

A particular ACM program may be configured to benefit one or moresupported organizations, for example one or more charities or public orprivate interest groups. An ACM program interface may be configured toenable a member to select one or more preferred supported organizations,allocate contributions or donations in percentages or contribution tiers(where the first X dollars benefit supported organization A, the next Ydollars benefit supported organization Y, etc.), or a combinationthereof, to one or more supported organizations. Many other contributionpriority schemes could be contemplated.

Furthermore, the ACM program interface may also be configured to enablea member to modify its contribution preferences at any time or onlyafter particular periods of time. Another option the ACM programinterface may enable is for a member to benefit a foundation or otherdisseminating entity that then disseminates contributions to one or moresupported organizations. Further still, the ACM program interface couldprovide to the member one or more supported organization codes that,when entered by the member into the interface, could automaticallyconfigure particular dissemination rules.

One or more supported organizations may also disseminate supportedorganization codes. For example, a supported organization may senddirect mail to its existing contributor base. The direct mail maycontain a website address and a supported organization code. Thecontributor could navigate to the address, which may be a portal to theACM program that enables the contributor to register as a member. Uponregistration, the contributor could enter the code and automaticallyconfigure its preferences. The code may also be particular to thecontributor, in which case it could signal to the ACM program that itcan import that contributor's personal information from an electroniclink to the supported organization's online data store.

Merchants may register with the ACM program through a plurality ofmeans. The ACM program may provide an automated online boarding means ora manual boarding means. The online boarding means may enable a merchantto register with the ACM program in a similar way as the member mayregister. For example, a merchant having an existing registered merchantidentification with another pre-registered financial program could beprovided with a registration interface of the present ACM program, suchas a web page, in which the interface includes a means by which toimport all merchant transactional information and preferences from thepre-registered financial program to the ACM program. For example, theinformation may include the merchant identification (such as anidentification number), credit card information, or automated clearinghouse billing information already linked to a database. Furthermore, theone or more forms of payment used with the pre-registered financialprogram could also be linked as tokens to the ACM program to tracktransactions made with those forms of payment. Alternatively, themerchant may register with the ACM program by providing through aninterface the merchant's information including merchant identification,location, etc., and the ACM program may link a financial card or otherbilling system to the merchant.

It should be noted that particular ACM programs enable regional benefitsand/or national benefits. The present invention provides the advantagesdescribed herein in a regional implementation wherein membersparticipate in one region of the ACM program but can, when they aretraveling for example, automatically participate in another region ofthe ACM program. Merchants that have a national or multi-regionalpresence may be associated with the ACM program, but in the regionalimplementation their individual outlets (i.e. stores) may be associatedwith the corresponding region of the ACM program.

The regional ACM programs may be optimally used to enable a regional (orlocal) supported organization to associate with the ACM program andreceive benefits, even though they may not have a national presence and,therefore, likely lower national public recognition (which may otherwisehave resulted in reduced benefits to the regional supported organizationsince ACM program members may not associate with an ACM programassociated with an unfamiliar supported organization). A merchant in aregional ACM program may commit to donate a portion of its revenue fromcustomers associated with the regional ACM program. The amount could bebased on various parameters tracked by the ACM program, and the ACMprogram could enable a calculation of the amounts due by the merchant tothe supported organization. Thus the present invention enables regionaland local supported organizations to participate in ACM programs in amanner that is cost effective to all parties of the ACM program.

The present invention also enables a merchant to offer differentcontributions to designated supported organizations within the ACMprogram based on various factors tracked in the ACM program, includingthe transaction's time of day, transaction's day of week, memberdemographics, transaction history, and supported organization support.

A foundation may be the principal beneficiary of the ACM program, butthe foundation may thereafter disseminate received funds to one or moresupported organizations in accordance with rules set either internallyor externally to the ACM program. The ACM program may provide a means bywhich merchants and members can allocate benefits to particularsupported organizations or to the foundation to determine whichsupported organization to direct funds towards.

To enable batch customer acquisition a boarding means may be providedfor enabling a third party intermediary to associate itself with the ACMprogram. The intermediary may be, for example, an online retailer havinga customer base with user accounts, an online payment provider alsohaving a customer base with user accounts, an online advertiser and/orsearch provider, or any other online presence having a customer basewith user accounts. The intermediary could also be a company and themembers to be acquired could be the employees of the company. The ACMprogram may make the boarding means accessible to the intermediary by,for example, a user interface for creating the association.

The intermediary may desire to associate with the ACM program for aplurality of purposes, including increasing its own customer base toinclude the ACM program's members, altruistic purposes, to increase itsown charitable giving for tax purposes, or to appeal to consumers.

Once the intermediary associates with the ACM program, the user accountsof the intermediary may automatically become associated with the ACMprogram such that the users become members of the ACM program. The ACMprogram may then be operable to provide a user interface for these newmembers to complete their profiles, as described above, for the ACMprogram. It can be easily understood that this process increases theawareness of the ACM program and can instantly increase its customerbase significantly.

ACM Program Provided Boarding

The present invention also provides a boarding process that isimplemented by the ACM program. An intermediary may use this boardingprocess to associate itself with the ACM program. The boarding processmay include a user interface by which the intermediary indicates itsdesire to associate with the ACM program and ascent to terms establishedby the ACM program administrator for making such an association. Some ofthese terms may relate to payments flowing to the ACM program as aresult of members' use of the ACM program options using theintermediary's system, as described more fully below. Similarly, theboarding process could be implemented by the intermediary to enable ACMprogram administrators to associate ACM programs with the intermediary.

Once an intermediary has been associated with the ACM program, theintermediary's members may automatically become members of the ACMprogram and optionally the ACM program's members may automaticallybecome members of the intermediary system.

The ACM program may include means to identify that new members have beenadded, and means for alerting these members that they have been added.This may include a messaging means already being used by theintermediary's system or email, for example. Alternately, theintermediary may already utilize a portal page for each of itscustomers, and the ACM program could alert the new member using an iconor other alert on the portal page.

A new member to the ACM program can follow steps directed by the ACMprogram administrator in such a message to complete the member's profilein the ACM program. The member can then utilize the ACM program.

A new member to the intermediary's own system may be presented an optionof whether to automatically associate their user account to the ACMprogram.

Analytics

In accordance with the above, the ACM program administrator, supportedorganizations, intermediaries, and merchants may each be enabled toreceive enhanced analytic information associated with transactionsbetween members and merchants. The enhanced analytics provided to themerchant includes information to increase customer acquisition andretention. This is accomplished by reporting to the merchant informationrelating to its customer's preferences, their responses to previouspromotions (which may be indicative of their likelihood of futuretransactions using those or similar promotions), and means forattracting new and existing customers to transact with the business.

The purpose of providing a merchant with this information is to enablethe merchant to easily determine ways for achieving customer acquisitionand retention and for maximizing revenue. For example, typically amerchant will choose to model its practices on past successes. Theanalytic information enables a merchant of the ACM program to do so, byreporting on the success of past practices and by suggesting to themerchant appropriate future practices and/or enabling the merchant tomodel future practices appropriately. The merchant, in other words, usesthe analytic information to increase its future revenues. The interfaceof the present invention enables the merchant to leverage the analyticsin this way to disseminate means to attract customers. Consequently, amerchant can experience an increased number of or revenue fromtransactions using the ACM program, which in turn benefits the otherparties to the ACM program.

An analytics utility may provide information that may include datainvolving members' interaction with merchants of the ACM program orintermediary's interface. For example, the ACM program may enablemerchants to disseminate surveys, contests and events and receivefeedback for same from members. Any other features enabled by theparticular ACM program could similarly be included. The feedback couldbe recorded by the ACM program for processing by an analytics utility.

Local and regional businesses in particular benefit from these enhancedanalytics since these businesses would not typically be in a position toincur the expense of obtaining such information. Through leveraging amulti-merchant system as in the present ACM program, each of thesemerchants benefit from the economies of scale in implementing theanalytics utility.

The analytics utility may aggregate and categorize data includingcontribution amounts (nationally, regionally, locally, by supportedorganization type, by supported organization name, etc.), contributionsto supported organizations based on the location of contributing membersand/or merchants, member feedback regarding merchants, member location,member profiles (including total number of members, new membersregistered in a given period, member tenure breakdowns, active memberpercentages, etc., and could also be broken down by age, gender, income,location or other demographic information), member rewards (includingreward listings, usage, etc.), member support (including contact rates,contact reasons, escalations, etc.), member transactions (includingtransaction totals, transaction amounts, trends, etc., each categorizedby any number of options including merchant name, merchant type,merchant location, merchant profile, subcategories thereof, etc.),promotional codes (including code listings, new codes, and code usage),rates of return (including comparison reports on acquisition costs,revenue streams, etc.), community contributions, online statistics(including page visits, member login, pages/visit, percent of newvisits, referring links, etc.), or other data. The data may be presentedalphanumerically, for example in tabular format, and/or graphically, forexample by bar graph or pie chart.

In accordance with transactional data, which may be of particularinterest to merchants, transactions may be broken down by demographicinformation, recency, frequency, time of day, day of week, surveyresults (including commentary feedback), amount spent, or any otherinformation operable to be collected by the ACM program. The analyticscould be used to create a profile for the merchant pertaining to itsmembers, which may aid the merchant in establishing criteria forcreating and disseminating rewards, offers, and contests which themerchant can choose to utilize.

For example, rate of return information may be broken down based onmember types such as new members, community minded members, regularmembers, dissatisfied members, and infrequent members. Data can beanalyzed to determine the revenue growth or repeat revenue, as the casemay be, based upon each type. Furthermore, non-member spending may beincluded so as to determine the efficacy of the ACM program link. Thecost of administering or linking to the ACM program, acquiring members,retaining members, etc. can also be factored in to calculations ofreturn.

The ACM program may provide multi-regional merchants with multi-regionalanalytics (i.e. combined data sets) in addition to region-specificanalytics. This can be very useful for a merchant to evaluate andcompare its various regional outlets' performance.

Reporting might also be broken down by date periods.

This data may also be provided by the analytics utility to theintermediary and merchants tied to the ACM program. Even within theintermediary organization and/or merchant organization, different datacan be provided to different persons. For example, a managing directormay have access to all data while an employee in sales may not be ableto access profile information, for example, with member privacy in mind.In another example, regional outlets of a merchant may only be givenaccess to view data relating to the members of the particular regionwhile its national counterpart may view data relating only to nationalperspectives of members.

Furthermore, the analytics utility may present data to these interestedpersons (being from a merchant, supported organization, or intermediary)in various views. For example, there may be a “dashboard” type view thatpresents summarized information to an interested person. The analyticsutility may enable interested persons to set up their dashboard todisplay by default particular information. The dashboard display mayinclude links to expanded information on any of the categoriespresented.

Each of the ACM administrator, the intermediary and merchants may thenuse the data for analytic purposes, for example to determine purchasingpatterns or any other information that it desires to reveal and that hasnot previously been known to these parties.

The ACM program may match the rewards, offers, and contests to thecalculated profile to suggest or enable the dissemination of merchants'rewards, offers, and contests to members. Once the rewards, offers, andcontests are disseminated to members, the ACM program may measure andrecord member responses to the rewards, offers, and contests. Merchantsmay be granted access to this data as well. The responses may includewhether the member downloaded, printed, or redeemed the reward, offer,or contest. The member responses may indicate the member interest ineach of the rewards, offers, and contests. The ACM administrator or themerchant can configure pre-set conditions, thresholds or rules so thatif there is low interest the ACM program may automatically eliminateunattractive offers and assure retention and leveraging of attractiveoffers.

The advertising provider may already have means by which to associatepersonal information of members with other demographic information. Thusthe information provided through use of the present invention may beaggregated with the existing information to enable enhanced analytics.An example may be a search provider that also is an email provider, andthat displays to its email members one or more contextual advertisementsin accordance with words and phrases appearing in emails. The presentinvention may enable a more thorough understanding of the interests ofthe email member, which may also be the member. Thus, even more targetedadvertising may be displayed to the email member. Furthermore, theenhanced analytics could be used to provide targeted offers or rewardsto the member/member, which may also be based on, for example, a trackedinternet browsing history associated with the member.

It should be understood that the analytics utility may be operable toprovide analytic information in real time or near real time since datais collected electronically and disseminated preferably using anInternet enabled communication means, for example through a webinterface.

In one particular example, a merchant can refer to analytic informationof members, including those that repeatedly transact with the merchantand those that do not. A merchant may find that the reason for repeatbusiness is, for example, a particular offer disseminated using the ACMprogram. A merchant may decide to increase the dissemination of thisparticular offer to increase visits by members in the future.

The analytic information may be displayed to a merchant on a single webpage for ease of reference although it should be understood that theinformation presented may be divided over a plurality of web pages andconfigured in any viewing format, including by table or graph. Themerchant may be provided with means for customizing the amount and typeof analytic information presented on the web page and, optionally, maybe provided with links to further webpages to access additionalinformation.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example web page for providing a merchant withanalytic information in accordance with the present invention. Themerchant may be provided with a time selection utility to select a timeperiod for aggregating analytic information. The time period 101 may bepreset to the current month but the merchant could change the month orchange the range to include more or less time. The rest of the analyticspresented would reflect the information applicable to this set timeperiod, as appropriate to the type of information.

Possible categories of analytic information presented to a merchant may,for example, include reward redemption 103, transactions 105, rewards107, member feedback 109, promotion codes 111, ACM program interfaceusage 113, and contributions to supported organizations 115.

The reward redemption analytics could display all of the rewards or oneor more of the top rewards offered by the merchant that are most used bythe members to which they are disseminated. The number or percentage ofsuch rewards redeemed and the amount spent by a member when redeeming areward can also be displayed. A merchant may typically use thisinformation to decide on future reward dissemination, typically favoringthose rewards that result in a greater redemption rate or greater spend.The merchant could also access a reward management utility to manage itsrewards.

The reward management utility may enable a merchant to configure itsrewards. For example, the utility could display to the merchant a rankof all rewards, the highest being those that result in more memberstransacting with the merchant or that result in the most revenues forthe merchant. The merchant could add new rewards or remove rewards basedon these ranks, in order to increase traffic or revenues further.Alternatively, the ACM program could automatically make poorlyperforming rewards unavailable while promoting well performing rewards.

The transaction analytics could provide analytic information relating tomember transactions with the merchant and with other merchants forcomparison purposes. The number and spend from member purchases and thenumber of unique members transacting with the merchant could bedisplayed. Similar information may be displayed for all or somecompeting merchants. Additionally, non-member transactions could beimported from point-of-sale information that can be linked to the ACMprogram from the merchant's existing infrastructure or through a manualentry. In this way, the merchant can evaluate the efficacy of the ACMprogram.

The transaction analytics may be presented over multiple time periods,including for example the selected time period, the previous time periodand the lifetime of the merchant's enrollment with the ACM program. Thetransaction analytics could also be broken down by any of thedemographics of the members including gender, age, income, etc. Thisinformation could assist a merchant in determining the efficacy of itsuse of the ACM program and in ways in which to maximize revenues, forexample by promoting rewards or contests geared towards members that fitthe demographic profile of an intended customer.

Transaction analytics could be displayed numerically or graphically. Agraphical representation, for example, could display information on amonthly basis over the previous 12 month period in a bar graph. Thiswould be ideally suited to compare transactions per month or revenuesper month. Similarly, the information could be broken down hourly toshow the average time of the day that a merchant received the mostrevenues. Pie charts, for example, could also be used for displayingbreakdowns of transactions by any or a combination of the demographicinformation.

The rewards analytics could similarly assist a merchant in maximizingits revenues by appealing to its intended customers. The rewardsanalytics could display to the merchant the number of rewardsdisseminated (or “awarded”) and activated. This information could bepresented over multiple time periods, including for example the selectedtime period, the previous time period and the lifetime of the merchant'senrollment with the ACM program.

Rewards could also be displayed by type, with rewards analyticsdisplayed for each type. For example, reward types, which could varydepending on the needs of the ACM program administrator and merchants,may include daily special rewards, customer acquisition rewards,transaction frequency appreciation rewards, transaction recencyappreciation rewards and feedback awards. In some cases an ACM programmay be configured not to allow “awarding” of particular rewards. Theserewards may be available to any member regardless of meeting criteria.For example, a daily special reward may be made available to allmembers. In this case, the daily special reward may not be “awarded” andthe displayed analytics may be configured to reflect this, for exampleby reporting “n/a”, “/” or “-” instead of a number of rewards awarded.

In one example of a daily special reward, a merchant with a revolvinginventory (for example, a car rental company) may have particular lowsales on certain days. The merchant may choose to configure dailyspecials on those days as greater discounts than other days, when salesare typically higher.

The rewards analytics could also provide the merchant with informationrelating to the availability of rewards, where the ACM program has setlimited numbers of rewards that a merchant can disseminate based on anynumber of metrics. These analytics could also be displayed for each typeof reward and over multiple time periods.

Member feedback analytics could reflect the feedback received fromsurveys. A completion rate for a merchant's surveys could be displayedincluding over multiple time periods. Additionally, some or all of theresponses given by members could be displayed. For example, a particularmerchant may configure a survey to ask a member how the member wasintroduced to the merchant, with possible selections including “by theACM program”, “community minded” (i.e. has a bond with the supportedorganization), “regular customer” and “shops with competitor”. Themember feedback analytics could display the breakdown of answers givenby members over multiple time periods. The members' survey responsescould also be cross referenced to transactional analytics. For example,the member feedback analytics could indicate that 10% of membersreported they shopped with a competitor, and that these 10% of membersspend a total of $10,000 at the merchant. This information could also bereported over multiple time periods. The member feedback analytics couldalso provide answers based on satisfaction levels of the members,categorized for example by “positive experience”, “average experience”and “negative experience”.

Surveys could be configured to ask members any number of questions. Forexample, information relating to customer satisfaction, intent to returnto the merchant, intended frequency of visits, etc. could all becollected and displayed in the member feedback analytics.

Promotion code analytics may provide a merchant with a report,optionally over multiple time periods, displaying the number ofpromotional codes entered by members and the most frequently used codeby members. These promotional codes may be configured by the merchant toprovide members with discounts, for example.

ACM program interface (which could be, for example, a web siteadministered by the ACM program administrator) usage could also bereported to the merchant. The number of times members accessed amerchant's website through the ACM program website could be displayed.Additionally, statistics relating to the merchant's use of the ACMprogram interface for configuring its involvement in the ACM program andusing analytics could be displayed.

Additionally, merchants could manage their contributions from theanalytics. Contribution analytics could display to the merchant theamount of contributions to supported organizations from the transactionsthey have processed with members. The merchant could select to managedonations, configuring the distribution of contributions to one or moresupported organizations.

The configuration utilities and reward management utility may also beintegrally presented in a calendar interface. FIG. 11 displays acalendar interface for configuring contributions and managing rewards.Each day 117 in the calendar may briefly display the number of rewardsavailable for dissemination by the merchant and the current contributionamount. A merchant could click on a day to activate a rewarddissemination to a member or multiple members. The merchant could clickon a day to configure its contribution amount to one or more supportedorganizations.

The calendar interface may also be used to quickly access analyticsrelating to particular days. For example, a merchant could quickly seehow particular rewards performed on past days, transactional analyticsfor that day, etc. Optimally, this information would be displayed if amerchant merely held a mouse or other input device over the day of thecalendar. Alternatively, or in addition, a news feed could be integratedto the calendar or provided separately from the calendar. The news feedmay display information relating to analytic information, rewards,offers, surveys, transactions, contests or other desirable information.

Cross Loyalty

The present invention also provides a means by which merchants of an ACMprogram can participate in cross loyalty. Two complementary andnon-competing businesses may wish to disseminate offers to memberstransacting at one of the merchant locations. For example, a membershopping at a clothing merchant may be sent an offer for a restaurantmerchant nearby while a member eating at the restaurant merchant may besent an offer for the clothing merchant.

Cross-loyalty revenues may also be reported in the analytics.

Intermediary Enabled Sales

The present invention also provides a system and method for enabling anintermediary such as an advertising provider to be associated with aparticular ACM program wherein the advertising provider may realizerevenues as a result of connecting members with merchants, the merchantsmay be provided with enhanced analytics associated with members thatchoose to transact with them, and supported organizations may realizefurther revenue streams in accordance with the rules of the ACM program.The advertising provider could alternatively be replaced by any of theintermediaries previously identified.

The merchants and supported organizations may be any type, whetherlocal, regional, national, etc.

The ACM program may be administered either by a third party, a typicalACM program administrator, or the advertising provider, and may beoperable to collect all information described below, disseminaterelevant results to at least the advertising providers and merchants,and disseminate payments between the supported organizations,advertising providers, merchants, and members.

FIG. 1 illustrates a merchant registering with the ACM program using aboarding process of the advertising provider. The advertising providermay be an internet-based advertising provider such as a search engineprovider, payment provider, or other online portal. Retailers that arenot yet associated with the ACM program can become registered merchants11 by registering with the ACM program using either the ACM program'sexisting merchant registration process 13 or a boarding process providedby the advertising provider 15 that can integrate 17 with the ACMmerchant registration process.

For example, an opt-in check box could be provided by the advertisingprovider to enable an integrated boarding process with the ACM programat the time that the retailer is registering with the advertisingprovider or modifying its registration with the advertising provider. Ifa retailer chooses to so opt in, the ACM program may retrieve requiredinformation regarding the retailer from the advertising provider,simplifying the registration process with the ACM program. The retaileris then a merchant (i.e. registered with the ACM program). Similarly, amerchant that is registered or registering directly with the ACM programcould be provided with a means, such as a check box, that would enablethe merchant to be linked to the advertising provider 19. FIG. 2illustrates a merchant registering 21 with the advertising providerusing a boarding process of the ACM program 13, which may be operable tointegrate 23 with the advertising provider registration 15. Thus, thepresent invention enables retailers to leverage their existingpartnerships for further consumer exposure.

The advertising provider could similarly enable a retailer to leverageits registration utility to provide an integrated boarding process forany other type of loyalty program, regardless of whether it includes anACM program as herein described. In this manner, all of the followingfeatures may be adapted for the loyalty programs.

During the ACM program and advertising services registrations, themerchant may specify the rates at which contributions may be made to theone or more causes that it wishes to support and the fees it may pay tothe advertising provider, respectively. In return for these payments,the merchant may be provided with enhanced analytics, as furtherdescribed below. It should be noted that the merchant may also be makingcontributions to the causes in connection with transactions withmembers, which may be regulated by the rules of the ACM program.

The present invention also provides an advertising utility to trackwhether a member transacts with a merchant introduced to the member byan advertisement provided by the advertising provider. A typical onlineadvertising provider is already equipped with means for charging themerchant a fee for displaying the advertisement and an additional feeeach time the advertisement is clicked on by a member.

FIG. 3 illustrates the integration of an advertising provider's serviceswith the ACM program, wherein survey responses are used to linktransactions to advertisements viewed by members. The present inventionenables the advertising provider to charge the merchant 11 a further feeeach time such a member 35 purchases goods or services from the merchant11 as a result of having clicked upon the advertisement 37 provided fora member's search, whether the purchase is made online or offline (i.e.through what is commonly referred to as a “brick and mortar” store). Byleveraging one or more of the ACM program features the advertisingprovider can encourage the member 35 to complete a feedback mechanism 31for enabling the advertising provider to track 33 that the member 35used the advertisement as an intermediate step in purchasing the goodsor services. The feedback mechanism is described more fully below, butmay for example be a survey that in part requests the member 35 toidentify the means by which it discovered the merchant. If the member 35confirms that it discovered the merchant 11 through an advertisement 37provided by the advertising provider, the advertising provider maycharge a fee to the merchant 11.

The use of an advertising provider and the ability of the advertisingprovider to track statistics associated with the efficacy of itsadvertising means are known to those skilled in the art. The trackingmay be associated with, in a web based environment, the ability to trackthe number of times that an advertisement is displayed and the number oftimes a hypertext enabled advertisement is clicked on by a member. Inaccordance with the present invention, an advertising provider may beprovided with a utility with which to track such statistics.

The present invention advantageously enables the advertising provider toalso determine whether the advertisements it has provided result in asale of goods or services between merchants and members, determinestatistics associated with these sales, and can provide these statisticsto merchants registered with the ACM program. In other words, thepresent invention enables advertising providers and merchants to obtainmore measured results than are currently available. All of these metricscan be provided using the enhanced analytics of the present invention.

A merchant having an offline and/or an online presence may provide anadvertisement to be viewed by members through an intermediary that is anadvertising provider in such a way as to enable the advertising providerto track occurrences of members transacting with the merchant (forexample, purchasing goods or services) by way of the advertisement. Assuch, the present invention enables a means for clearly capturing theadvertising provider's role, and the efficacy of the advertisement, in afinal transaction. An advertising provider may thus increase itsadvertising sales revenue by leveraging a merchant's final sale.Additionally, the merchant may be provided with enhanced analyticsregarding its advertising efficacy.

FIG. 4 illustrates a process for measuring utilization of search resultsby members resulting in transactions with offline merchants. Once themerchant is registered with the advertising provider, the advertisingprovider may disseminate 41 the advertisements to a member using anumber of techniques known in the art, whether random dissemination, inassociation with demographic targeting, or by contextual targeting inassociation with a contextual search by the member, the advertisingprovider optionally also providing various other advertisements,internet links, or other information to the member. The analyticsutility may identify the technique by which the advertisement isdisseminated, including for example the contextual search that resultedin dissemination of the advertisement, and the member to which theadvertisement is disseminated.

The analytics utility may additionally identify occurrences whereby amember selects 43 the advertisement to discover the merchant, forexample by clicking a hyperlink associated with the advertisement. Inone particular embodiment, by selecting the advertisement the member maybe directed to a utility of the ACM program that profiles the merchant.The profile may include location information of the merchant along withreviews of the merchant based on previous members' feedback of themerchant. The previous feedback may be provided using surveys, which aredescribed more fully below.

The member, having viewed the merchant's advertisement, may visit 45 themerchant's physical location and may transact with the merchant.Optionally, the transaction is performed using the token tied to the ACMprogram, such as a financial card, and use of the token signals to theACM program that a transaction has been processed.

The ACM program may then disseminate a survey to the member upon thetransaction having occurred. The survey in the present invention mayenable the member to identify the particular means by which itdiscovered the merchant. Surveys could be targeted to particular membersbased upon that member's answers in a previous survey. Additionally, aswill be described more fully below, offers can be targeted to particularmembers based on that member's answers in a previous survey.

The member may submit the survey to the ACM program. If the memberidentifies by means of the survey that the advertisement was the meansby which it discovered the merchant, survey responses and thetransaction details may be recorded in a database or other storagefacility in accordance with the implementation of the ACM program. Alongwith other such transaction details compiled by the system, theanalytics utility may be operable to analyze 49 the set of transactiondetails for the advertising provider and for each merchant so registeredwith the advertising provider. The information can be used for enhancedanalytics as described more fully below.

The feedback mechanism (e.g. the survey) may also be operable to requestcomments from the member about its customer experience or other relevantinformation regarding its dealings with merchants. This information canalso be stored in the database for reporting to the merchant using theenhanced analytics.

The surveys may also be used to generate reviews of the merchant and/ormerchant location. The reviews can be accessed by members to assist themin determining whether to transact with the particular merchantpresenting the advertisement.

FIG. 12 illustrates a member accessing merchant reviews and ACMinformation generated from feedback received from other memberscorresponding to previous transactions with the merchant. When a memberperforms a search 121, the member may be presented with the merchant'sadvertisement 123 by means of the advertising provider, and may accessall reviews 125 for that merchant and/or merchant location. The membermay browse individual reviews 125 and be presented with additionalinformation including, for example, merchant's average and/or totalexperience rating 127, transaction amount 129, donations raised 131, thenumber of reviews presented 133 or any other relevant informationrecorded by means of the ACM. Each of the reviews may be linked with itscreator's member profile 137, including their demographic informationand all other reviews 135 by that member, such that the currentlybrowsing member can determine the relevancy and/or credibility of thereview based on the reviewing member's other reviews.

Example Transaction

To better illustrate the foregoing, the following is one exampletransaction in accordance with the present invention. It should beunderstood that there are many other implementations for the systems andmethods provided in the present invention, in accordance with aspectsthereof.

FIG. 5 illustrates an advertising provider enabling optimal usage of anACM program for a merchant. The advertising provider may be an internetsearching means that displays, to a member, context sensitiveadvertisements.

An online or offline merchant may register through the typicalenrollment steps required by the advertising provider, and also indicatethat it wishes to participate in the program of the present inventionthat is enabled by the advertising provider. The merchant registrationmay be in accordance with the methods previously described andillustrated in FIG. 1 and/or FIG. 2.

A member may wish to benefit one or more supported organizations and,therefore, be interested in purchasing goods or services from merchantsthat are tied to an ACM program associated with the one or moresupported organizations. The member may be provided with an internetsearching means provided by the advertising provider. The member maysearch 51 for specific goods or services of interest that happen to beprovided by the merchant, and the advertising provider maycorrespondingly provide the member with the merchant's advertisement aspart of its search results 53. The member may follow a hyperlinkcorresponding to the advertisement 55, which may identify means by whichto find the merchant's physical store location as well as reviews of themerchant by other members. The advertising utility may record that themember has clicked the hyperlink corresponding to the advertisement, andcharge a fee to the merchant in accordance with the agreement betweenthe advertising provider and the merchant.

The member may, after optionally accessing member reviews associatedwith the merchant as well as reviews of other merchants reviewed bythose members and demographic information of those members, visit themerchant's physical store location and may purchase 57 the goods orservices from the merchant. The purchase may be made using a token suchas a stored value card or financial card linked to the ACM program. AnACM program may record a transaction made using the card and/or the ACMprogram may provide the member with a feedback means 59 corresponding tothe transaction and tying the member and merchant with the transaction.The advertising provider and the merchant may provide the member with anincentive, such as a reward or an offer as permitted by the rules of theACM program, to encourage the member to complete the feedback means.

Part of the feedback means may ask the member to indicate how the memberinitially discovered the merchant, which in this case may be theadvertisement. The feedback means may also request that the memberprovide comments regarding its customer experience with the merchant,which may be later provided as reviews 63 for the benefit of othermembers. The member may then activate a means for submitting thefeedback means 61 back to the ACM program, in accordance with theparticular implementation of the ACM program.

If a feedback means identifies the advertising provider as theintermediary that introduced the member to the merchant, the advertisingprovider may then charge the merchant a corresponding fee for providingthe advertisement that resulted in the sale.

Furthermore, both the advertising provider and the merchant may beprovided with the enhanced analytics 65 further described below,resulting from the gathering of information related to the efficacy ofthe advertisements in connection with the sale.

Other implementation extensions may be provided. For example, themerchant, having been discovered by the member, may provide a couponwith a bar code to be directed electronically to the member through theadvertising provider or through the ACM program. The member can thenprint the coupon and present it at the merchant's physical locationwhile the transaction is taking place. Use of the coupon may enable theACM program to provide the member with a feedback means, rather thanrequiring the member to use a card linked to the ACM program.

A feedback means, such as a survey, may not be required in order toenable flow-through of benefits to the one or more supportedorganizations and payment to the advertising provider. Where a merchanthas an online store, a tracking means such as a cookie may be providedto determine whether the advertising provider enabled the sale by themerchant. Where a merchant does not have an online store, the offer suchas the coupon may be encoded such that it identifies the advertisingprovider. The encoded coupon may, therefore, be the feedback mechanism.Upon use of the offer, the ACM program may be notified to providepayment to the advertising provider and the one or more supportedorganizations.

As would be clear to those skilled in the art, the present invention maybe of great commercial value in that each of the ACM program, theadvertising provider, and the merchants are provided with a much greatercustomer base through enhanced customer acquisition while the member isgiven a new means of directing contributions to one or more desiredsupported organizations by transacting more often with merchants tied tothe ACM program.

Mobile Communications Facility

The present invention also discloses a mobile device utility that can beused with an ACM program to further enhance the systems and methodsdescribed above. The mobile device utility may receive and delivercontent between the ACM program and a member's mobile device usingSMS/MMS, cellular network, wi-fi, satellite, radio frequency, infrared,Bluetooth, NFC or other wireless mobile communications mediums andprotocols. The mobile device utility may transmit and receiveinformation using a secure protocol. The mobile device and/or the mobiledevice utility may also receive and transmit data with a point of salefacility of a merchant.

The mobile device may be a computing device with at least one processor,at least one memory, and a network interface for wireless communication.The mobile device may also have a display screen to display a GUI. Anexample mobile device is a wearable device such as an article ofclothing or an accessory that incorporates computer hardware.

The mobile device may be used as a payment device. For example, themobile device may non-transitorily store an electronic representation ofa financial card on memory so that the mobile device may be used by amember as payment for transactions with merchants. The mobile device mayreceive data related to the financial card and transmit data related tothe financial card to implement operations for transaction processing.For example, a merchant may have an electronic point of sale facilitythat electronically interacts with mobile device with financial carddata stored thereon to process the payment. As another example, themobile device may interact with the mobile device utility to receive andtransmit financial card data. An example mobile device is a wearabledevice that may receive, store, and transmit the financial data and actas a financial card.

A mobile device may store electronic representations of multipledifferent financial cards to provide a virtual or electronic “wallet”.The ACM program may also be used to manage multiple different financialcards where updates may be synchronized to the mobile device. Aninterface may provide card management features to enable a user tonavigate available financial cards (represented as icons, graphicalrepresentations of cards, and so on), select a financial card forpayment for a given transaction, and authorize the transaction.

The mobile device utility is operable for any ACM program and, inparticular, should not be considered limited to an ACM program wheremerchants and supported organizations are of any particular type,whether local, regional, national, etc.

The mobile device utility may be synchronized in real time or near realtime with the ACM program. For example, if content such as surveys,offers, rewards, or contests are disseminated using the mobile deviceutility that content may not be made available to the same member usinga typical portal to the ACM program, such as the ACM program web site.Similarly, if the member receives content while using the typical portalto the ACM program that content may not be made available to the samemember via the mobile device utility. It should be noted that if the ACMprogram typically records the information exchanged between the ACMprogram and the member, the ACM program could be adapted to also recordassociated information exchanged with the member using the mobile deviceutility such that the mobile device utility may be a seamless additiononto the typical ACM program.

Optimally, the recording features of the ACM program would be operableto identify which information is exchanged using the mobile deviceutility, since such information may be desired by parties associatedwith the ACM program. This information can be advantageously used toprovide advanced analytics in connection with the movements of andtransactions of members. For example, mobile specific reports may begenerated for a merchant or intermediary or across the entire ACMprogram or a subset thereof, whereby information is provided related toall facets of member-mobile interaction including mobile surveys, mobilereward redemption, and mobile contest entries. These reports can be usedby merchants to determine whether to issue rewards based on locationtied to a member's prior shopping patterns or based on inventoryvariables. The recording features may also collect and recordinformation relating to transaction processing including identificationof which financial cards are used for payment for transactions, if amobile device is used for payment, and so on.

A member may provide its mobile device information to the ACM programusing any of a number of methods. The mobile device information mayinclude one or more financial cards stored thereon which may be used fortransaction payment. The member may navigate to the ACM programinterface, such as a web site, authenticate as a registered member (inaccordance with the ACM program details), select a link corresponding tomobile device setup and then provide the mobile device information suchas phone number or other identifier. Alternatively, a member may accessthe web site using the mobile device. In this case, a web page tailoredto a mobile device may be displayed to the member. The member canprovide authentication information, and once the ACM program validatesthe member, the active mobile device can be associated to the member'sACM program profile without the member needing to manually enter it. Anunsuccessful authentication in either implementation can be handled bythe ACM program by providing the member with an alert thatauthentication failed.

FIG. 6 illustrates ACM program features enabled using a mobile device.The ACM program 61 may include a mobile interface utility 63 operable tointerface with the mobile device 65. A mobile device 61 such as a mobilephone or a smart phone may be provided to enable optimal transactingbetween the ACM program 61, the member 35, and the merchant 11, inaccordance with which numerous features of the ACM program may beimplemented. These features may enable increased marketing opportunitiesfor merchants by, for example, increasing member awareness of merchantlocations (and thus system activity), increasing reward 67 disseminationand redemption and survey 69 responses (and thus system activity),increasing ease of transaction processing, and increasing ease of use bymembers of the ACM program.

FIG. 7 illustrates the present invention whereby a member's mobiledevice is incorporated optimally into an ACM program. The mobileinterface provided may augment the typical usage of the ACM program aspreviously illustrated 71 in FIG. 5 by leveraging a mobile network 73and location based triggers 75. In addition, a member may providefeedback 77 by means of the member's mobile device. Further, the mobileinterface may provide a graphical representation of one or morefinancial cards stored on mobile device for selection for payment forthe transaction so that the mobile device may be used a payment device.As described herein, transaction may trigger contributions to supportedorganizations. The mobile interface may display a graphicalrepresentation of the supported organization and the contributionthereto based on a transaction between a member and a merchant. Themember may customize the communications received and sent through theirmobile device. For example, a member may define a list of preferredmerchants wherein features associated with the mobile device utility areonly operable in association with merchants within the preferredmerchants list. The list may be defined within the ACM program eitherusing its typical interface (such as ACM program web site) or on amobile device interface of the ACM program (also referred to herein asthe mobile ACM program).

The preferred merchants list could be defined by a member using the ACMprogram interface by navigating to and authenticating with the mobileACM program and authenticating with the ACM program. Uponauthentication, a list of merchants may be displayed to a member. Asearching means could also be provided to the member so the member maysearch for merchants by name, category, location, or other criteria. Themember may add merchants using either the list or the searches. A linkmay also be provided to the current preferred merchants list for themember. The member may be provided with a means to delete one, some, orall of the merchants on the list so they are no longer preferredmerchants. Alternatively, the member may delete a merchant from the listupon receiving an offer, reward, survey, or contest from the merchant onthe mobile device. Furthermore, the member may customize the types ofcommunications to be received from each preferred merchant.

Additionally, when offers, rewards, surveys, or other communications arereceived on the mobile device, a member may associate its correspondingmerchant with the preferred merchants list or remove it from thepreferred merchants list. The member could also block the particulartype of communication from that merchant using the preferred merchantslist. It should be understood that all of the following features may belimited to the preferred merchants or may be operable for all merchantsdepending on the particular ACM program implementation and the member'spreferences. The following features could similarly be limited tomerchants offering particular types of goods or services, or by anyother type of categorization. Furthermore, the mobile device utility maybe provided with a means allowing the member to determine which of thefollowing features would be enabled.

Full access to the ACM program features may be provided using the mobiledevice. For example, an ACM program available through the internet maymake available a simplified interface, or the ACM program interface, tobe viewed on a mobile device operable to browse internet web sites. Thismay be typically enabled by mobile devices commonly known as smartphones.

The member may effect a search using the advertising means and beintroduced to a merchant, as described above. If the merchant does notprovide an online store, the merchant may be enabled to direct an offerto the member's mobile device using the mobile device utility. Upontransacting with the merchant, the member need only present the offer asdisplayed on the screen of the mobile device rather than have to print acoupon or other offering means. For example, a bar code may be displayedon the screen of the device.

The mobile device utility may also enable real time delivery of afeedback mechanism, such as a survey, after a transaction between themember and a merchant. The member could choose to complete the feedbackmechanism immediately or soon thereafter rather than at a later timeusing a more traditional facility provided by the ACM program, such asvia a computer connected to the internet. In other words, the member cancomplete the feedback mechanism on their mobile device at a timeapproximate the transaction.

Such a mobile device utility may therefore greatly enhance the ease ofuse and timeliness of use of the invention described herein. Thetransaction may also result in a member being provided with a gift cardin accordance with the rules of the ACM program. If the gift cardrequires activation, the mobile device utility could be used by themember to activate the gift card immediately. For example, the membermay navigate to and authenticate with the mobile ACM program and beprovided with a link to a gift card web page. The member may input thegift card number and optionally be provided with a survey which, whencompleted, activates the gift card. A confirmation message may be sentto the mobile device as well.

The mobile device utility may enable other aspects of the ACM program tobe directed to the member regardless of where they are located at thetime. For example, the mobile device utility may provide content such asrewards, offers, contests, and surveys, in accordance with its rules, tothe member. For example, a member may navigate to and authenticate withthe mobile ACM program. The ACM program may provide to the member a listof contests that the member can participate in. The member may browsethe list and select the particular contest to participate in. The ACMprogram may require the member to complete a survey to enter thecontest. The member may complete the survey, enter the contest, and theACM program may send a confirmation message to the mobile device.

Furthermore, a member may, on the mobile device, search, receive, andredeem rewards and special offers for a merchant. For example, themember may navigate to and authenticate with the mobile ACM program andbe provided with a link to a web page to search rewards. The member mayinput a postal code/zip code, telephone area code, or other locationdefining information, and be provided with a list of nearby merchantsoffering rewards. As another example, location tracking mechanisms onthe mobile device may automatically determine and provide location datato mobile device utility for provision to ACM program to determinenearby merchants. The member can browse the rewards and save rewards ofinterest. Saving a reward may result in downloading the reward detailsto a local storage means of the mobile device. The reward may also beaccessible using the traditional ACM program access portal (i.e. not onthe mobile device). The reward details may include a bar code to scan atthe merchant's point of sale. A member may access their saved rewards atany time, but the rewards may be removed once they are used by a member,if the reward is to be so limited.

Alternatively, the member may search rewards by location. For example,the member may access and authenticate with the mobile ACM program andbe provided with a link to a web page to search rewards based onmerchant name and optionally a radius. The search may be populatedautomatically by location tracking mechanisms on the mobile device. TheACM program may provide results being either the merchant or a number ofmerchants within a defined radius of the named merchant. The member maybrowse the rewards and save rewards of interest. Saving a reward mayresult in downloading the reward details to a local storage means of themobile device. The reward may also be accessible using the traditionalACM program access portal (i.e. not on the mobile device). The rewarddetails may include a bar code to scan at the merchant's point of sale.A member may access their saved rewards at any time, but the rewards maybe removed once they are used by a member, if the reward is to be solimited.

A member that has previously been offered a reward from a particularmerchant may, when the member is near the location of the merchant,download the reward details to the mobile device so that the reward canbe redeemed at the merchant location. Alternatively, a member may be ata location that the member is aware is near a merchant. The member mayuse the mobile device utility to search the ACM program for specialoffers available with the particular merchant. If special offers areavailable, the member may be more likely to transact with the merchantat that particular time. For example, the member may access andauthenticate with the mobile ACM program and be provided with a link toa web page to search merchants for rewards based on merchant name. Themember may optionally filter the search by business category or minimumcontribution percentage. The ACM program may provide a link to view themerchant's location and rewards as well as contribution informationrelating to the member's transactions at the merchant. The member canbrowse the rewards and save rewards of interest. Saving a reward mayresult in downloading the reward details to a local storage means of themobile device. The reward may also be accessible using the traditionalACM program access portal (i.e. not on the mobile device). The rewarddetails may include a bar code to scan at the merchant's point of sale.A member may access their saved rewards at any time, but the rewards maybe removed once they are used by a member, if the reward is to be solimited.

Mobile devices may be equipped with means for location tracking, such asglobal positioning system (GPS). Where a particular member has a mobiledevice equipped with GPS, various location based and proximity basedservices could be provided to the member. Location based and proximitybased services may require a mobile device that can receive what arecommonly referred to as push services, for example A mobile deviceproximate to a merchant location (as detected by location trackingmechanism) may automatically receive rewards relating to the merchantlocation. As a further example, a merchant may have an in-storecomputing device configured to interact with mobile device and/or mobiledevice utility. The in-store computing device may be a point of salefacility, for example. The in-store computing device may detect aproximate mobile device and transmit command messages to triggerdissemination of rewards or other communications to mobile device fromACM program mobile device utility.

As another example, a mapping feature could be provided to a member sothat the member could be given the location of a number of nearestmerchants, or a number of nearest merchants offering a particular typeof good or service, or the nearest preferred merchant. In addition,offers for nearby merchants could be sent to the member via mobiledevice, or in-store communications could be provided to members inassociation with content including offers, rewards, contests or otherannouncement. Optimally, the content may be delivered to the member'smobile device at approximately the time the member enters the store,comes within a particular distance of the store, or passes directly infront of the store. The content may include any type of data includingtext, rich text such as HTML, audio, video, or images. The content couldbe for any purpose, including advertising a sale, or for highlighting aspecific manufacturer or a specific product.

Correspondingly, a merchant could access through the ACM programinterface a mapping feature displaying members that are nearby. Themerchant could then target rewards or otherwise attract those members tothe merchant location.

Further still, the member could search for rewards or offerscorresponding to all nearby merchants. The nearby merchants could alsobe selected based on past searches performed by the member, such thatthe merchant could be one that sells goods or services previously soughtby the member. Merchants could also tailor the particular offers basedon the member's transaction history with the particular merchant or thetransaction history of the member with the ACM program generally, orwith merchants in the same general field of sales as the particularmerchant.

The mobile device utility may also be used to provide news updates tomembers. The news items could be “pushed” to the mobile device, or couldbe requested by the member. For example, the member may navigate to andauthenticate with the mobile ACM program, and be provided with a link toa news page. The news page may provide a set of news items, and themember may select a news item to view the details of the item.Optionally, the ACM program will filter news items so that it displaysonly those items associated with the present location of the mobiledevice.

FIG. 13 illustrates example schematics of mobile interfaces for a mobiledevice. In this example, the mobile device is a wearable device such asa watch with computer hardware and a display screen. When the mobiledevice enters or is proximate a merchant location, a welcome interface150 may trigger for display on the display screen of the mobile device.The welcome interface 150 may identify the merchant and data relating tothe merchant. The welcome interface 150 may include a reward or offer.The welcome interface 150 may trigger by mobile device utility upondetecting that the mobile device is proximate to a location of amerchant, such as through location tracking. The welcome interface 150may be triggered by merchant in-store computing device upon detectingthat the mobile device is proximate to a location of a merchant, whichmay trigger a message directly with the mobile device or indirectlythrough mobile device utility.

An offer or reward interface 152 may trigger for display on the displayscreen of the mobile device. The reward interface 152 may identify anoffer or reward based on a transaction at the merchant location. Forexample, the reward interface 152 may identify an offer or reward for acontribution to a supported organization based on a transaction at themerchant location. The reward interface 152 may provide a message orview of the merchant's commitment to the community. This may provide anincentive for the member to transact with the merchant, as describedherein. The contribution may also be based on the financial card usedfor the transaction to encourage or provide an incentive to use aparticular financial card for a transaction over another financial card,for example.

A payment interface 154 may trigger for display on the display screen ofthe mobile device. The mobile device may interact directly with a pointof sale facility of the merchant to process the payment for thetransaction. The mobile device utility may implement data exchange withthe ACM program for data relating to the transaction.

A charity interface 156 may trigger for display on the display screen ofthe mobile device. The charity interface 156 may identify a contributionto a supported organization based on the transaction at the merchantlocation. The contribution may relate to an individual transaction or anaggregate of multiple transactions. The mobile device may have devicesthat physically interact with the member to provide notification of thecontribution. For example, after walking out of a merchant locationafter making purchase and the member may feel a buzz on their arm, thenwith a quick glance at the wearable device they will see a notificationregarding a contribution to one or more supported organizations. Forexample, the notification may be a thank you message from a young girlwith a toothy smile in a hospital bed included in the image is thedonation amount and logos or names of the supported organization,merchant and issuer. The mobile device utility may deliver the rightmessage to the right mobile device at the right time (e.g. proximate tothe transaction). For example a phone may have a much larger displayscreen that can be leveraged for a more detailed message but may not bevisible or convenient to view if it is in a pocket or buried in a purse,so other wearable device display screens may be used for the message.

Additional interfaces may be provided on a mobile device. For example, afeedback interface may be provided which includes one or more feedbackmechanisms.

Accordingly, mobile devices may further tighten an emotional connectionbetween the issuer of the financial card, the merchant, and the memberbased on contributions to supported organizations. As that bondstrengthens, the member may start to want to use a particular financialcard more or transact with a particular merchant more. The member maymore often put aside other forms of payment to use the preferredfinancial card that triggers contributions to supported organizations.

Mobile devices including wearable devices may strengthen personalinteraction with the world, supported organizations, issuers andmerchants.

FIG. 14 illustrates a schematic diagram of a system for automated causemarketing using mobile devices. As shown, the system may include one ormore merchant systems 104, one or more mobile devices 106, and a loyaltysystem 114 for providing loyalty programs according to some embodiments.The system further includes a mobile interface utility 112 a connectingone or more mobile devices 106 to loyalty system 114 via network 110. Insome embodiments, merchant system 104 may have one or more mobile devicecomponents and a mobile interface utility 112 b may connect one or moremerchant systems 104 to loyalty system 114 via network 110. The systemmay also include a social network 116 or components implementing an APIfor a social network 116. The social network may facilitatedissemination of reward and contribution related data.

Loyalty system 114 provides a loyalty program for members and merchants.Loyalty system 114 may be an automated cause marketing (“ACM”) programwith a fundraising component as described herein. An ACM programautomates dissemination of benefits to several parties involved infundraising, including one or more supported organizations (for example,charities), merchants, and members. Flow-through to the supportedorganizations may be maximized in the ACM model.

Merchant system 104 may include various connected hardware devices. Forexample, merchant system 104 may include at least one processor, atleast one data store, at least one network communication interface, atransceiver for transmitting transaction related data, and for receivingpayment, rewards, and other transaction related dated, for example. Amerchant may use the merchant system 104 to process transactions withmembers and receive rewards for redemption.

Merchant system 104 may include a transaction device including point ofsale device, NFC device, code reader, or other device for processingtransactions. Merchant system 104 may include one or more softwarecomponents, such as a loyalty application, transaction firmware, and soon. Merchant system 104 may connect to the core loyalty system 114 via anetwork 110, such as for example one or more public or private networksfor an online mode. Merchant system 104 may also feature an off-linemode.

Mobile device 106 may include various connected hardware communicationdevices, such as a wearable device, and so on. For example, mobiledevice 106 may include at least one processor, at least one data store,a transmitter for transmitting location, transaction and reward relateddata, and a receiver for receiving transaction, reward, and notificationrelated data, for example. Mobile device 106 may include one or moreinput devices, such as a keyboard, mouse, camera, touch screen and amicrophone, and may also include one or more output devices such as adisplay screen and a speaker.

Mobile device 106 is operable by a member of a loyalty program (managedby loyalty system 114). The member has a financial card, which may be anelectronic or virtual card stored on a mobile device as a financial cardtoken for example. The financial card may include machine readableindicia stored in a local data store. The cardholder device 106 may alsoinclude a radio-frequency identification (RFID) device, or othernear-field communication (NFC) device to exchange data with a merchantsystem 104, for example.

Mobile device 106 may implement transaction and loyalty operations usingtokens, in some embodiments. A token may be used with a physical devicethat identifies and authorizes a member for specific actions relating toone or more financial cards, transactions, rewards, and so on. The tokenmay store temporary or permanent cardholder identification data,financial data, cryptography keys, digital signature, biometric data,and so on. There may be additional types of authentication required,such as PIN, password, and so on. A token may be used with a dedicatedhardware device, secure element, or secure component. A token may beassociated with a configuration file to define data fields associatedwith the token. The token may be encrypted for additional security.

A member may use mobile device 106 to transact with merchant systems 104using tokens, receive reward related data, provide feedback relateddata, receive notifications regarding contributions, and so on. Mobiledevice 106 may include one or more hardware components such as aprocessor, memory, display (e.g. touch display), mobile phonecomponents, NFC device, location device, secure transaction token datastore, and so on. Mobile device 106 may include one or more softwarecomponents, such as a loyalty application, transaction firmware, and soon. Mobile device 106 may connect to the core loyalty system 114 viamobile device utility 112 a and network 110, such as for example one ormore public or private networks for an online mode. Mobile device 106may also feature an off-line mode.

The mobile interface utility 112 a/b may augment the typical usage ofthe ACM program by leveraging a mobile network (which may form part ofnetwork 110), along with location based triggers and time based triggersfor reward dissemination. In addition, a member may conveniently redeemrewards, process payment for transactions, and receive notifications ofcontributions using mobile device 106. The mobile device utility 112 amay also enable real time delivery of rewards to mobile device 106 forredemption at a location linked to a merchant when the mobile device isproximate to the location.

FIG. 15 illustrates a schematic diagram of mobile device 106 andmerchant system 104 for exchanging transaction and reward data.

Mobile device 106 includes a processor 502 configuring a loyalty module504 to provide a portal to loyalty system 114 via mobile device utility112 a. Mobile device 106 has a location device 506 for tracking andgenerating location data which in turn generates events to triggerreward and notification dissemination, and other location basedservices.

Mobile device 106 initiates and processes transactions with merchantsystem 104 via a financial card token 510 configured with financialdata. The financial data may include default credit card information andauthorization, for example. Transaction data signals are exchanged vianear field communication (NFC) devices 518, 522 to execute thetransaction for goods or services. Mobile device 106 may provide avirtual wallet for member and provide the vehicle for the transactionvia tokenization. This enables the member to directly transact with themerchant using mobile device 106. This may reduce overhead transactioncosts. Transaction processor 524 processes the transaction betweenmobile device 106 and merchant system 104 to generate a transactionnotification for transmission to loyalty system 114. Transaction detailsmay be stored in data store 508, 520. Data store 508, 520 may be anytype of electronic memory that is located either internally orexternally such as, for example, RAM, ROM, CDROM, electro-opticalmemory, magneto-optical memory, EPROM, and EEPROM, FRAM or the like.

Mobile device 106 receives and stores rewards as reward tokens 526 (e.g.electronic signals representing rewards) in data store 526. A rewardtoken 526 may be used to redeem a reward of the loyalty program inassociation with the transaction. This enables the member to directlytransact and redeem rewards with the merchant using mobile device 106.

Network interface 526 enables mobile device 106 to communicate withother networks, to access and connect to network resources such asmobile device utility 112 a and merchant system 104, to serve anapplication, to access other applications, and perform other computingapplications by connecting to a network such as network 110.

I/O interface 512 enables mobile device 106 to interconnect with inputand output devices, e.g., peripheral devices or external storagedevices. Such peripheral devices may include one or more input devices,such as a keyboard, mouse, camera, touch screen and a microphone, andmay also include one or more output devices such as a display screen(with three dimensional capabilities) and a speaker.

FIG. 16 illustrates a flow chart of a method for automated causemarketing using mobile devices.

At 202, the loyalty program is configured using loyalty system 114.Further details regarding loyalty programs are described herein. Theloyalty program has member profiles and merchant profiles. A memberprofile includes different fields such as, for example, demographicdata, financial card data, supported organization data, a memberidentification, and mobile device information. Each field may have oneor more associated values. For example, financial card data may havemultiple values for different financial cards linked to the member.Information received by loyalty system 114 that corresponds to one ormore values of different fields of member profiles may be used to searchand locate a member profile. Each merchant profile includes differentfields such as, for example, a merchant identification and a location.Each field may have one or more associated values. For example, amerchant may have stores at different locations and so the locationfield may have multiple values for the different locations. The loyaltyengine creates rewards for members of the loyalty program using thedemographic data, the supported organization data, and the locationsassociated with the merchants. The rewards define rules forcontributions to supported organizations based on transactions.

At 204, the mobile device utility 112 a/112 b is configured to interfacewith mobile device 106. The mobile device utility 112 a/112 b providesan interface between the loyalty system 114 and mobile devices 106 toenable optimal transacting. Further details regarding mobile deviceutility 112 a/112 b are described herein.

At 206, mobile device utility 112 a/112 b detects a mobile device 106 ata location within a predefined distance of a location identified in amerchant profile. The mobile device utility 112 a/112 b interfaces withlocation tracking hardware of mobile devices 106 to track locations andcorrelated the tracked locations to locations of merchant profiles. Thetracked locations may be timestamped to generate a trajectory oflocations of a mobile device 106 over time. A particular mobile device106 may be detected at multiple locations corresponding to differentmerchants over a time period. A member is identified by correlating ormatching a mobile device identifier linked to the location informationreceived from the mobile device 106 to mobile device identifiers inmember profiles. That is, a mobile device 106 is identified by a mobiledevice identifier defined in a member profile, and in turn, a member isidentified by member identification in the member profile with the samemobile device identifier. A mobile device 106 may be linked to a membersuch that the mobile device identifier may identify a single memberprofile and in turn a single member. A member may be linked to multiplemobile devices 106 in some example embodiments. The mobile deviceutility 112 a/112 b may transmit a greeting to mobile device 106 towelcome the member to the merchant location, in some examples. Anexample welcome interface 150 with a greeting message is shown in FIG.13.

At 208, loyalty system 114 via mobile device utility 112 a/112 btransmits a reward to mobile device 106. The mobile device utility 112a/112 b may transmit the reward to the mobile device 106 atapproximately a time when the mobile device 106 is within the predefineddistance of the location identified in a merchant profile. That is,detection of a mobile device 106 at a merchant location triggerstransmission of a reward to the mobile device 106. The reward relates toor identifies a merchant identified by merchant identification in themerchant profile identifying the location. That is, the reward is forredemption at the merchant's location. The reward may also be referredto herein as an offer. The reward comprises a machine readable code andmay be stored at the mobile device as a reward token 526. The rewardtriggers contributions to the supported organizations based on atransaction between the member and the merchant. The reward may beassociated with one or more goods or services offered for purchase bythe merchant. An example reward interface 152 with details of the rewardand the contribution triggered by the reward redemption is shown in FIG.13.

At 210, loyalty system 114 detects a transaction between member andmerchant, where the transaction involves payment using mobile device104. As described, mobile device 104 may include a financial card token510 for payment for transactions with merchant system 104. The mobiledevice 104 may exchange data directly with merchant system 104 toprocess payment for the transaction (see e.g. FIG. 15) or may interactwith mobile device utility 112 a/112 b for payment processing. Anexample payment interface 154 with details of the payment confirmationis shown in FIG. 13.

At 212, loyalty system 114 detects reward redemption for thetransaction. The loyalty system 114 receives transaction data for atransaction between the member and the merchant processed using mobiledevice 104 at a point of sale facility at the merchant's location. Thetransaction data indicates member identification, merchantidentification, a transaction amount, a date, a time, an indication thatpayment for the transaction involved the mobile device 106, and anindication of the reward. The loyalty system 114 processes thetransaction data to detect the reward redemption. The loyalty system 114may record details regarding reward redemption in member profile (linkedto member identification) and merchant profile (linked to merchantidentification) using the transaction data. Redemption of the reward maybe initiated by mobile device 106 via the machine readable code.

At 214, loyalty system 114 triggers a contribution to one or moresupported organizations based on transaction. Further details regardingcontributions to supported organizations are described herein. That is,loyalty system 114 generates signals for directing a contribution amountfor a contribution to the one or more supported organizations based onthe reward redemption. Details regarding rules for contributions aredescribed herein. For example, the contribution amount may be linked tothe transaction amount for example.

At 216, loyalty system 114 triggers transmission of a notification tomobile device 106 via mobile device utility 112 a/112 b regarding thecontribution. An example notification is shown in FIG. 13 as acontribution interface 156 of a mobile device 106. The transmission ofthe notification may be triggered at a time approximate the transaction.

The notification may indicate an amount for the contribution and thesupported organization.

At 218, loyalty system 114 generates reports for merchant system 104based on transactions, reward redemption, mobile usage, contributions,and other analytics. Further details on analytics and reports aredescribed herein.

The mobile device utility may also enable a member to disseminateinformation related to the social networking aspect of the presentinvention, as described more fully below.

Social Networking

Social networking sites typically focus on building online communitiesof people sharing interests and activities, or who are interested inexploring the interests and activities of others. The present inventionprovides a means by which to expand the reach of ACM programadministrator's and merchants' marketing to members' social networkingcontacts. Contributions can be correspondingly increased.

FIG. 8 illustrates the present invention whereby a member facilitatesdissemination of aspects of an ACM program using an electronic socialnetwork. The member interact with the ACM program and/or merchant 81,may upload and disseminate ACM program information 83 to their socialnetwork 85 including rewards, offers, events, and surveys associatedwith the ACM program. The ACM program information 83 may then be postedto the social networks 87 or directed to targeted contacts within thosenetworks. This may enable others in the social network to view 89 theACM program information to identify purposes that are in line with theirown interests and for these others to join 91 the ACM program or takeadvantage of the rewards, offers, and surveys in accordance with therules of the ACM program.

FIG. 9 illustrates the architecture of a social media adapter utilityfor an ACM program in accordance with the present invention. The socialmedia adapter utility 93 is operable for any ACM program 95 and, inparticular, should not be considered limited to an ACM program wheremerchants and supported organizations are of any particular type,whether local, regional, national, etc.

The system of the present invention may provide a means by which toassociate an ACM program with one or more social networks 97 furtherlinked to one or more contacts 99. Each member may be provided with afacility to connect aspects of their ACM program profile with one ormore electronic social networks of their choice. For example, the systemof the present invention may include a web page on which the memberprovides its social network information, including authenticationinformation, to the ACM program. The ACM program may use thisinformation to create links between the ACM program and the one or moresocial networks indicated by the member.

A member may link a social network profile with the ACM program using asocial media adapter utility 93. The social media adapter utility 93 maybe accessed by a web page associated with the ACM program. The membermay authenticate to the ACM program using the web page and may beprovided with a social media adapter utility web page.

The social media adapter utility web page may display a list of socialnetworks linked by the member. The member may update, delete and insertexternal social network links. To create a link, the member may submitthe name of the social network, which may result in the social mediaadapter utility enabling an API for that social network. The member mayalso enter its social network authentication information. Thereafter,the social media adapter utility may be linked with the social networkfor the member. To update a link, the member may select the name of thesocial network from the list. The member may alter the social networkname or authentication information for that social network, and submitthe changes to the social media adapter utility. To delete a link, themember may delete the name of the social network from the list.

Alternatively, the member may not provide its social network password tothe social media adapter utility, but may be required to enter thepassword each time the social network features of the ACM program areengaged.

The social network features may also include uploading rewards to thesocial network. For example, a member may have browsed or searched forrewards using the ACM program portal or the mobile device utility. Themember may select a social network button corresponding to a displayedreward. The social media adapter utility may determine whether themember has provided the necessary information to enable a link to thatsocial network and, if so, the social media adapter utility may post amessage on the member's social network web page advertising the reward.Alternatively, if the information is not present, the social mediaadapter utility may request the information from the member and thendisseminate the information. Optionally, the member may be required toconfirm the posting when they next log in manually to the socialnetwork, as might be dictated by rules of the social network.

Similar techniques may be used to disseminate surveys, events, andcontests to the social networks. A member may also disseminateinformation regarding its contribution statistics. The member may accessthis information using analytics provided by the ACM program. Using asimilar method to that outlined above, the member may disseminate thecontribution statistics using social networks. Similarly, the membercould disseminate any other information provided by the ACM program.

This may provide an advantageous means for the ACM program, andmerchants and sponsors associated therewith, to become known to thegeneral public.

Example Implementation

The systems described above may be implemented fully in software exceptfor a transceiver means to communicate with members' mobilecommunication devices. The use and implementation of said transceivermeans is well known to those skilled in the art.

Each of the intermediary enabled sales, enhanced analytics, mobilecommunication facility, and social networking may be provided usingsoftware layers running over ACM program software.

For example, the intermediary enabled sales facility may be associatedwith the ACM program software in such a way to exchange informationregarding merchants' rewards, offers, and surveys with members'preferences, locations, and mobile device settings. Thus the ACM programmay be used as a facility to enable the intermediary enabled salesfacility to function appropriately. The intermediary enabled salesfunctionality enables the enhanced analytics.

The mobile communication facility, similarly, may be associated with theACM program such that a member may indicate in their ACM program profilethat they wish to receive rewards, offers, and surveys on their mobiledevice. The member may also input their mobile device settings (such asphone number) to the ACM program. The mobile communication facility mayquery these settings to determine how and where to send rewards, offers,and surveys. The mobile communication facility may then directinformation to mobile devices by interfacing with a transceiver meansand using protocols including SMS, MMS, 3G, Edge, 1X, EVDO, Wi-fi, orBluetooth. Other protocols may also be used.

The social networking aspect may also be associated with the ACM programto associate a member with rewards, offers, and surveys. Thus the membercan access the above mentioned functions of the social networking aspectusing an interface provided by the ACM program. The social networkingaspect may also have links to one or more social networks to effectdissemination in accordance with the member's directions.

Finally, each of the intermediary enabled sales facility, mobile devicecommunication facility, and social networking aspect may be associatedwith the ACM program in such a way that they may interface with eachother. For example, as described above, the use of a survey using themobile device communication facility may correspond to flow through inaccordance with the advertising enabled sales facility. Such a functionmay be enabled by the ACM program's association to each of the twofacilities.

1. A system for providing a loyalty program, the system comprising: aloyalty engine comprising a data storage device and a processor forconfiguring a loyalty program, wherein the loyalty program generates oneor more member profiles and one or more merchant profiles, wherein eachof the one or more member profiles defines demographic data, financialcard data, supported organization data, a member identification, andmobile device information, wherein each merchant profile defines amerchant identification and a location, wherein the loyalty enginecreates rewards for members of the loyalty program using the demographicdata, the supported organization data, and the locations associated withthe merchants; a mobile device utility providing an interface betweenthe loyalty engine and one or more mobile devices to enable optimaltransacting between the loyalty engine and the one or more mobiledevices, wherein the mobile device utility is configured to: interfacewith location tracking hardware of a mobile device of the one or moremobile devices to determine that the mobile device location is within apredefined distance of a location identified in a merchant profile ofthe one or more merchant profiles, wherein the mobile device isidentified by mobile device information defined in a member profile ofthe one or more member profiles, wherein a member is identified bymember identification in the member profile; transmit a reward of therewards of the loyalty program to the mobile device at approximately atime when the mobile device is within the predefined distance of thelocation identified in a merchant profile, wherein the reward relates toa merchant identified by merchant identification in the merchant profileidentifying the location, wherein the reward comprises a machinereadable code, wherein the reward triggers contributions to the one ormore supported organizations based on a transaction between the memberand the merchant; wherein the loyalty engine: receives transaction datafor a transaction between the member and the merchant, the transactionprocessing at a point of sale facility at the location, the transactiondata indicating the merchant identification, a transaction amount, adate, a time, an indication that payment for the transaction involvedthe mobile device, and an indication of the reward; and determines,using the transaction data, that the transaction involved redemption ofthe reward initiated via the machine readable code; and generatessignals for directing a contribution amount for a contribution to theone or more supported organizations based on the reward redemption. 2.The system of claim 1, further comprising an application for a mobiledevice interfacing with the mobile device utility to receive the rewardand notification of the contribution.
 3. The system of claim 1, furthercomprising an application for a mobile device interfacing with themobile device utility to transmit location information from a locationtracking device.
 4. The system of claim 1, further comprising anapplication for a mobile device interfacing with the mobile deviceutility to receive reports relating to reward redemption andcontributions to supported organizations.
 5. The system of claim 1,further comprising an application for a mobile device interfacing withthe mobile device utility to manage reward tokens and financial cardtokens stored on a data storage device of the mobile device.
 6. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the loyalty engine records informationexchanged using the mobile device utility to provide real-time or nearreal-time synchronization between the mobile device utility and theloyalty engine.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein the loyalty enginegenerates a mobile specific report comprising data regarding locationsof the mobile device and transactions using the mobile device.
 8. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the mobile device utility authenticates themobile device prior to transmitting the reward.
 9. The system of claim1, wherein the mobile device utility authenticates the financial carddata of the member profile prior to enabling the mobile device to storea financial card token for processing the payment for the transaction.10. The system of claim 1, wherein, prior to transmitting the reward,the mobile device utility receives a preferred list of merchants,wherein the preferred list of merchants is associated with a memberprofile of the one or more member profiles, and wherein the preferredlist of merchants identifies a merchant identification of a merchantprofile of the one or more merchant profiles, and wherein the mobiledevice utility determines that the merchant profile identifying thelocation corresponds to the merchant profile identified by the preferredlist of merchants.
 11. The system of claim 1, wherein the mobile deviceutility transmits a feedback request to the mobile device at a timeapproximate the transaction.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein theloyalty engine is configured to generate signals for posting on at leastone social network information regarding the member, the merchant, theredemption of the reward, and the contribution.
 13. A method forproviding a loyalty program, the method comprising: configuring aloyalty program, using a loyalty engine, wherein the loyalty programgenerates one or more member profiles and one or more merchant profiles,wherein each of the one or more member profiles defines demographicdata, financial card data, supported organization data, a memberidentification, and mobile device information, wherein each merchantprofile defines a merchant identification and a location, wherein theloyalty engine creates rewards for members of the loyalty program usingthe demographic data, the supported organization data, and the locationsassociated with the merchants; configuring a mobile device utility tointerface between the loyalty engine and one or more mobile devices toenable optimal transacting; detecting, using the mobile device utilityinterfacing with location tracking hardware of a mobile device of theone or more mobile devices, that the mobile device location is within apredefined distance of a location identified in a merchant profile ofthe one or more merchant profiles, wherein the mobile device isidentified by mobile device information defined in a member profile ofthe one or more member profiles, wherein a member is identified bymember identification in the member profile; transmitting a reward ofthe rewards of the loyalty program to the mobile device at approximatelya time when the mobile device is within the predefined distance of thelocation identified in a merchant profile, wherein the reward relates toa merchant identified by merchant identification in the merchant profileidentifying the location, wherein the reward comprises a machinereadable code, wherein the reward triggers contributions to the one ormore supported organizations based on a transaction between the memberand the merchant; receiving transaction data for a transaction betweenthe member and the merchant, the transaction processing at a point ofsale facility at the location, the transaction data indicating themerchant identification, a transaction amount, a date, a time, anindication that payment for the transaction involved the mobile device,and an indication of the reward; and detecting, using the transactiondata, that the transaction involved redemption of the reward initiatedvia the machine readable code; generating signals for directing acontribution amount for a contribution to the one or more supportedorganizations based on the reward redemption; and transmittingnotification, using the mobile device utility, to the mobile device at atime approximate the transaction, the notification indicating thecontribution.
 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising generatingreports relating to reward redemption and contributions to supportedorganizations and transmitting the reports, using the mobile deviceutility, to the mobile device or the merchant.
 15. The method of claim13, recording information exchanged using the mobile device utility toprovide real-time or near real-time synchronization between the mobiledevice utility and the loyalty engine.
 16. The method of claim 13,generating a mobile specific report comprising data regarding locationsof the mobile device and transactions using the mobile device.
 17. Themethod of claim 13, authenticating the mobile device prior totransmitting the reward.
 18. The method of claim 13, authenticating thefinancial card data of the member profile prior to enabling the mobiledevice to store a financial card token for processing the payment forthe transaction.
 19. The system of claim 1, transmitting a feedbackrequest to the mobile device at a time approximate the transaction. 20.A non-transitory computer-readable medium or media storing computerinstructions which when executed by at least one computer processorcauses the at least one computer processor to perform acts comprising:configuring a loyalty program, using a loyalty engine, wherein theloyalty program generates one or more member profiles and one or moremerchant profiles, wherein each of the one or more member profilesdefines demographic data, financial card data, supported organizationdata, a member identification, and mobile device information, whereineach merchant profile defines a merchant identification and a location,wherein the loyalty engine creates rewards for members of the loyaltyprogram using the demographic data, the supported organization data, andthe locations associated with the merchants; configuring a mobile deviceutility to interface between the loyalty engine and one or more mobiledevices to enable optimal transacting; detecting, using the mobiledevice utility interfacing with location tracking hardware of a mobiledevice of the one or more mobile devices, that the mobile devicelocation is within a predefined distance of a location identified in amerchant profile of the one or more merchant profiles, wherein themobile device is identified by mobile device information defined in amember profile of the one or more member profiles, wherein a member isidentified by member identification in the member profile; transmittinga reward of the rewards of the loyalty program to the mobile device atapproximately a time when the mobile device is within the predefineddistance of the location identified in a merchant profile, wherein thereward relates to a merchant identified by merchant identification inthe merchant profile identifying the location, wherein the rewardcomprises a machine readable code, wherein the reward triggerscontributions to the one or more supported organizations based on atransaction between the member and the merchant; receiving transactiondata for a transaction between the member and the merchant, thetransaction processing at a point of sale facility at the location, thetransaction data indicating the merchant identification, a transactionamount, a date, a time, an indication that payment for the transactioninvolved the mobile device, and an indication of the reward; anddetecting, using the transaction data, that the transaction involvedredemption of the reward initiated via the machine readable code;generating signals for directing a contribution amount for acontribution to the one or more supported organizations based on thereward redemption; and transmitting notification, using the mobiledevice utility, to the mobile device at a time approximate thetransaction, the notification indicating the contribution.